--- title: No backup, no cry | daily.dev description: A modern approach to data management that eliminates traditional full-system backups by treating computers as disposable, stateless units. The strategy relies... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: No backup, no cry | daily.dev og:description: A modern approach to data management that eliminates traditional full-system backups by treating computers as disposable, stateless units. The strategy relies... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/bL8DEaV5b.png og:image:alt: No backup, no cry og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # No backup, no cry **[David Heinemeier Hansson](https://daily.dev/sources/dhh)** · 1 min read · 180 upvotes · 7 comments ## Summary A modern approach to data management that eliminates traditional full-system backups by treating computers as disposable, stateless units. The strategy relies on distributed copies through services like Dropbox and GitHub, combined with full-disk encryption, ensuring all important data exists in multiple locations. This setup allows for quick recovery and system restoration, with configuration automated through ISO setups that can install a fully functional system in minutes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@randy** · 7 upvotes > Truth. Only, I dropped Dropbox when I became an Apple house. iCloud does the same thing and is just simply more convenient when every device in the house (barring a few) is an Apple. > > For my own anecdote, my work laptop crapped itself a couple months back. I use Hammerspoon for a handful of "hotkeys" and such, and it occasionally hangs, so I turn off all my apps, shutdown my dev VM, and restart my computer. Normally, this works out fine... This time, no "bong." So I pushed and held the power button; computer started to boot, but it was taking way too long. > > Well, long story short, I fought... **@fabianletsch** · 4 upvotes > I agree, i wouldn't use dropbox though since Snowden revealed the NSA has direct access to it. **@capivara** · 3 upvotes > Funny fact, or not so funny, depending on the country you live in, if you make a funny post about someone powerful enough to be bothered by your post, then that person can simply distort the legal system and have security forces confiscate all your electronic devices. > So having a cloud backup solution comes in handy in these situations. **@xidib78169** · 3 upvotes > Fires and robbings can't be prevented, but in most cases, a redundant storage configuration is enough. I was surprised that he trust cloud storage. **@outofthevoid** · 2 upvotes > Interesting take. But setting the trust issue with cloud storage aside, what about accidental deletion of data? This get synced back immediately to Dropbox. Or do they provide a versioning feature I am not aware of? > (Which I might, bc I don't use Dropbox) ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Dropbox user lost everything and proved why you need a NAS, not cloud storage](https://daily.dev/posts/a-dropbox-user-lost-everything-and-proved-why-you-need-a-nas-not-cloud-storage-xwd2s31gr) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Properly Protect Your Data With Backups I Arctic Wolf](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-properly-protect-your-data-with-backups-i-arctic-wolf-ndljm0sor) · Arctic Wolf · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [FUCK THE CLOUD](https://daily.dev/posts/fuck-the-cloud-lsyvqwic1) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I've tried a lot of different backup software, and I keep coming back to this free, open-source tool](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ve-tried-a-lot-of-different-backup-software-and-i-keep-coming-back-to-this-free-open-source-tool-n9ynrgzkw) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure), [#git](https://daily.dev/tags/git) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"No backup, no cry","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b"},"datePublished":"2025-11-24T10:40:41.062Z","dateModified":"2025-11-24T10:40:58.061Z","description":"A modern approach to data management that eliminates traditional full-system backups by treating computers as disposable, stateless units. The strategy relies...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d3a3f7aa9043cbaa366a805064d566cc?_a=AQAEulh","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d3a3f7aa9043cbaa366a805064d566cc?_a=AQAEulh","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"David Heinemeier Hansson","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"David Heinemeier Hansson","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b7c11ef4e9954addbc4857515fd21609","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/dhh"},"commentCount":7,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":180},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}],"keywords":"devops,infrastructure,git","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David Heinemeier Hansson","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/dhh"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"No backup, no cry"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Truth. Only, I dropped Dropbox when I became an Apple house. iCloud does the same thing and is just simply more convenient when every device in the house (barring a few) is an Apple.\nFor my own anecdote, my work laptop crapped itself a couple months back. I use Hammerspoon for a handful of “hotkeys” and such, and it occasionally hangs, so I turn off all my apps, shutdown my dev VM, and restart my computer. Normally, this works out fine… This time, no “bong.” So I pushed and held the power button; computer started to boot, but it was taking way too long.\nWell, long story short, I fought through some sort of a disk corruption issue by using my phone and Perplexity to get the exact right steps. I don’t know if it was Podman or Multipass, but one of them went sideways because neither worked once I got the computer running again.\nAnyway, all that to say, in the middle of the couple of hours spent, work was ready to overnight me a new laptop, which would have taken a couple of hours, tops, to get me back up and running because we’ve (mostly I) automated the entire dev environment setup. It would probably take longer to babysit fully disk backups and deal with restoring them, so I don’t. And I haven’t for years; probably close to a decade.","datePublished":"2025-11-24T13:22:10.525Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bL8DEaV5b#c-Q3FOMl37i","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Randy","url":"https://daily.dev/randy","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--UjV4-KkB--/f_auto/v1708097210/avatars/avatar_HXYbbGcBO38Rfv7RrCBdA"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I agree, i wouldn’t use dropbox though since Snowden revealed the NSA has direct access to it.","datePublished":"2025-11-25T21:18:45.731Z","dateModified":"2025-11-25T21:19:16.315Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bL8DEaV5b#c-nyOneTeuY","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Fabian Letsch","url":"https://daily.dev/fabianletsch","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKR6BVy_wn23EoOKq7-BlszlcXcLmASlnb7l-GtS-q1bePnkaJf=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Funny fact, or not so funny, depending on the country you live in, if you make a funny post about someone powerful enough to be bothered by your post, then that person can simply distort the legal system and have security forces confiscate all your electronic devices.\nSo having a cloud backup solution comes in handy in these situations.","datePublished":"2025-11-28T12:33:07.098Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bL8DEaV5b#c-vwwmaOQ0c","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Capivara","url":"https://daily.dev/capivara","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DA2mcrsG--/f_auto/v1758736833/avatars/avatar_UV1NnWEQoVaZwRCb2buJ8?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Fires and robbings can’t be prevented, but in most cases, a redundant storage configuration is enough. I was surprised that he trust cloud storage.","datePublished":"2025-11-25T12:49:27.417Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bL8DEaV5b#c-gd4jefn7z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"test","url":"https://daily.dev/xidib78169","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Interesting take. But setting the trust issue with cloud storage aside, what about accidental deletion of data? This get synced back immediately to Dropbox. Or do they provide a versioning feature I am not aware of?\n(Which I might, bc I don’t use Dropbox)","datePublished":"2025-11-27T07:31:00.232Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bL8DEaV5b#c-ncqlatJEb","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephan","url":"https://daily.dev/outofthevoid","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--MnblALEP--/f_auto/v1739345945/avatars/avatar_xpAZZGaGPoG0aHloq2cOB"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} ```